They all nodded in unison.
“That chore list sucks! If I want to cook and manage this kitchen, then I’m damn sure going to do it! Okay?” She glared at Viper.
“Knock yourself out.” Viper’s concession didn’t slow her down.
“If I want to do it, I will,” she snarled at her husband who was about to protest. “If it gets to be too much, I’ll tell you.”
“One person can’t do it all. You can’t handle this kitchen and your baking business—”
Willa cut him off. “I don’t plan do to it alone. I plan to hire someone. Ginny can quit the diner. She hates it. Everyone can keep their freaking clothes on while she’s in the house for a few hours a day. Everybody should pick the chores they want to be responsible for. If they don’t get done, dock their pay and give it to Ginny to pay her for doing them.”
“We usually vote on…” Viper began then stopped at her glare. “We’ll try it on a trial basis.”
Willa went to the pantry, taking out the broom and dust pan, angrily sweeping the broken glass and cookies up jerkily.
She pointed the handle of the broom at Raci. “If I want to wash dishes by hand, I will. It relaxes me.”
Raci jerked back as the broom handle nearly tapped her nose. “Okay.”
Willa dumped the glass into the trash can before turning her heated glance toward Winter. “And if I want to fix my husband breakfast and wait on him because it makes me feel good, then I will!”
“But, it’s archaic—” Her teeth snapped together at Willa’s glare. “All right.”
Stori moved out of Willa’s way as she put the broom and pan back in the pantry. Willa shut the pantry door then stopped in front of Stori, pointing her finger at her chest. “If anyone is going to make my husband’s lunch, it’s going to be me. If I’m not here, then he can fix it his own damn self.”
“Okay.”
Willa looked at her watch, realizing she was going to be late for work, and she hated being off schedule. She was almost out the kitchen door when she turned around.
“And, Rider, put down the freaking toilet lid in the half bath when you’re done, dammit.”
“I’ll remember that.”
Her tirade wasn’t over as her gaze focused on Jewell. “Do you see a nose on my face?”
Jewell gave her a strange look, nodding her head.
When Willa slammed her hand against the kitchen door, sending it flying the rest of the way open, Jewell hastily moved out of the way so it wouldn’t hit her when it swung back.
“I want my perfume back. It’s been missing since the day I moved in, and I smell it on you.”
She stormed out the kitchen door, still yelling her angry volleys over her shoulder as she headed toward the front door. She was going to get The Last Riders under control, and if not for good, then it would at least be until her and Lucky’s house was built.
* * *
The kitchen was silent as they all listened to Willa’s shouts from the other room as she left.
Lucky saw Moon open his mouth to reply when he heard Willa yell at him to get his boots picked up off the floor.
“Don’t say anything. She might come back,” Winter whispered.
Moon closed his mouth, flinching at the sound of his boot hitting a wall, which had them all staring at each other in trepidation that she would come storming back into the kitchen. The slam of the front door had more than one member giving a sigh of relief.
Raci went to stand by the back door. “Do you think she’s really gone, and she’s not faking us out?”
After several seconds, Viper opened the kitchen door, looking into the other room. “She’s gone.”
“Thank fuck.” Jewell sat down shakily at the kitchen table. “I thought she was going to kick my ass.”
“Mine, too.” Winter’s hand was trembling as she lifted her coffee cup to her lips.
The tension in the room didn’t dissipate with Willa leaving, though.
“Bliss, that’s the last time you hurt a member.” Viper’s cold voice was directed at the cause of the unexpected showdown which Willa had won.
“Willa’s not a member.” Bliss’s defiance had disappeared when Willa’s rant had begun. Now she stood in the middle of the members who had gathered in a circle around her.
“I wasn’t talking about Willa. I was talking about Lucky. She’s his wife, so anything you do to hurt her hurts him.”
Lucky saw Bliss’s eyes move in his direction. Coldly, he stared back as Viper began stripping Bliss of her rights as a Last Rider.
“A member has to have eight out of eight votes from the original members to be voted out. When you mouthed off to Lily, you had six out of eight. Two members voted to give you another chance—Lucky and Rider. I’m taking another vote.” Viper glanced at Shade. “Call Knox and get his vote.”
Viper continued talking as Shade moved to the side, making the call.
“I vote out.” Viper looked at Razer. “In or out?
Razer didn’t hesitate. “Out.”
“Train?”
“Out.”
“Lucky?”
Bliss’s tears didn’t affect his vote.
“Out.”
“Shade?”
“Out and Knox votes out.” Shade placed his cell phone back in his pocket.
“Cash?”
“Out.”
All eyes in the room were on Rider when Viper called his name.
“Rider?”
Rider, who had saved Bliss from expulsion three times before, was Bliss’s final hope.
“Please don’t, Rider. I promise—”
“Out.” Rider’s curt vote sealed Bliss’s fate.
Bliss’s shoulders began shaking while she stood as an outcast among them, but Viper showed her no mercy.
“Since I know you don’t have a place to go, you have until the end of the month to get your shit packed and find somewhere else to live, preferably not in Treepoint. You could go back to Ohio.”
“If I don’t belong to The Last Riders, I don’t have anything to go back to there.”
“You don’t belong to The Last Riders anymore, so there’s nothing waiting for you there,” Viper agreed harshly.
Bliss wiped away her tears with the back of her hands, walking through the room of angry members to leave.
None of the members were happy Bliss was being forced to leave. They all knew her feelings for Shade were hard for her to get over. They had all hoped the woman would be able to move past her love for him.
Lucky glared at Shade. “You brought Willa inside the clubhouse without me?”
“She wanted to know what was wrong with you. I told you to tell her about your PTSD before you were married.”
“I was going to tell her.”
Shade crossed his arms over his chest. “I saved you the trouble.”
Lucky’s hands clenched into fists. “When did you take her downstairs?”
“The night she came to borrow Lily’s cookbook.”
“That was a Friday night.”
“Yes, it was.” Shade’s cavalier attitude pissed him off even further.
“What did you tell her?”
“All of it.” Shade gave a laconic shrug. “I showed her all those fancy medals of yours, told her how Kale died, and how you nearly got your ass killed—all of it.”